Page 202 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

At the same time, I have never seen a vendor who is satisfied with less
than 100 percent of an organization’s business. Each one wants every
scrap, and they don’t want their competitors in the company. So give each
vendor some business as a tease, and keep them all hoping that they may
win more down the road . . . as long as they don’t tick you off. Offer them
a reason to work for, not against you.

FIGHT THE BRIGHT IDEAS OF SALESPEOPLE
The worst would-be vendors are not the ones who simply lobby your boss
for business, but the ones who go so far as to contribute business ideas,
which you then have to fend off. For example, there was once a broker
who wanted John Hancock to partner
with him on a high-commission, high-
GIVE EACH VENDOR risk business where we would under-
SOME BUSINESS write large life insurance policies for
AS A TEASE, AND Americans overseas, based on foreign
KEEP THEM ALL physicals.
HOPING THAT THEY Our actuaries didn’t like the idea, and
MAY WIN MORE neither did I.When we took on big risks
DOWN THE ROAD . . . at John Hancock, we wanted to know
AS LONG AS THEY who the doctors were.
DON’T TICK YOU Suddenly, however, my boss was sim-
OFF. ply hammering me as to why we were
not in this business. I couldn’t figure out
the source of my miseries at first, and
there is nothing worse than trying to defend yourself against a ghost. Then
I realized that the broker in question belonged to a fancy golf club my boss
wanted to play at. So they were golfing together.
Your tendency in a situation like this is to slough off the boss’s sugges-
tion: I’ve already looked at that idea and made my decision. I’m not going
to deign to consider that subject again.

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